Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/195

The Obelisks. i ~ i inches hieh.^ Obelisks seem also to have been employed for the decoration of palaces, as we may conclude from a Theban painting- in which one appears before the principal entrance to a villa surrounded with beautiful gardens.- Judging- by the sizes of people in the same painting, this obelisk must have been about thirteen feet high. Diodorus speaks of obelisks erected by Sesostris which were 1 20 cubits, nearly 180 feet, high ; -^ and different texts allude to monoliths which were 130, 117, and 114 feet high. We have some difficulty in accepting the first of these figures. The obelisk of Hatasu, at Karnak, which is the tallest known, is 108 feet 10 inches in height.^ That which is still standing at Matarieh, on the site of the ancient Heliopolis, is only 67 feet 4 inches high. But the fact that it is the oldest of the colossal obelisks of Egypt makes it more interesting than some which surpass it in size (Fig. 167). It bears the name of Ousourtesen I., of the twelfth dynasty. As a rule, the inscriptions cut upon the four sides of those obelisks which are complete are very insignificant. They consist of little but pompous enumerations . ^ of the royal titles. •'• -- _-"^-;=,^ The two obelisks erected bv Rameses II. FiGi66^^-Funerary obelisk in the rsecropolis of lhebe>. in front of the first pylon at Luxor were from Mariette.«  slightly unequal in height. One was ^}, feet 4 inches, the other 78 feet 5 inches. To hide this difference to some extent they were set upon bases also of unequal height, and the shorter was placed slightly in advance of its companion, i.e. slightly nearer to the spectator approaching the temple by the dromos.' By these means they hoped to make ^ Mariette, Mo7uiments Divers, pi. 50. The obelisks illustrated in this chapter are all drawn to the same scale in order to facilitate comparison. - WiT.KiNSOX, Manners a/id Customs, etc., p. 396. ^ Diodorus, i. 57. < Recent measurement has shown that the height given on page 105, Vol. I., is incorrect. — Ed. '" In the Dictiontiaire d'Arc/iivIogie Egyptienrie of M. Pierret, a translation of the hieroglyphics upon one side of the Paris obelisk will be found under the word Obelisqiie. The Athe?iceum for October 27, 1877, contains a complete translation of the inscription upon the London obelisk, by Dr. Birch. — Ed. ^' Monuments Divers, pi. 50. " Description. Antiquites, vol. ii. pp. 371-373. In our view of Luxor on page 345